UPS Mail Innovations

[John-Nenniger]

I have a few number from UPS Mail Innovations which just started coming into my app and being labelled unknown

They are 18 digits, all numbers, and so far have this format 801184************ but it could just be a simple id counter (which seems likely) so the first few digits are likely irrelevant

According to this stack overflow answer, (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38188373/how-to-distinguish-ups-mail-innovations-from-usps-tracking-number) they can't be distinguished from USPS, so this might be strictly impossible.

The tracking number in the above question has 26 digits though, so the system seems to have changed since then. Either that or there are multiple options:

Q. | What number do I use to track my mail piece?
A. | You can use the Package ID, Tracking number, or Delivery Confirmation Number.

I'll send a message to UPS and see if there are any consistencies that would make this doable. Any advice is welcome

[jkeen]

I can't find any documentation on UPS Mail Innovation numbers anywhere, and this is really the first I've heard of them.

The numbers you're getting aren't being recognized as USPS numbers?

[lastobelus]

@jkeen in the long run we post these to Shopify, and what we have observed is:

• whatever system shopify is using, it is able to get state info on the package
• the tracking number takes some time to be recognized by ups, perhaps a day. Until then ups just responds with nothing
• here's an example:

the gem reports the numbers as :unknown_carrier

[lastobelus]

UPS doesn't have much info, but it seems like UPS mail innovations is some sort of collusion between UPS & USPS:

https://www.ups.com/us/en/help-center/sri/track-mi-package.page

We did try running the numbers through USPS, and it does not recognize them.

[cookieguru]

TL;DR: https://postalpro.usps.com/pub199

UPS Mail Innovations barcodes will meet the USPS spec. All of the following information also applies to USPS tracking numbers, FedEx SmartPost numbers, DHL GlobalMail, and any others that utilize the USPS network.

The full tracking number will start with 420 followed by the five digit zip code. Why 420? Because the spec says so (Pub 199 section 4.1 on page 48 of the January 19 2024 edition). Those eight digits are never printed on the package.

Following this will be 92-95. 91 is no longer valid (Appendix J, Table 2). Other prefixes are not valid either. 92 and 93 indicate a commercial mailer. UPS MI numbers will always fall in these. Following the 3 digit service type code will be the mailer ID. This is the best way to identify whether or not a package is transported via UPS MI, FedEx SP, DHL GM, etc. However the numbers do not correlate to the zone skipper but rather the sender. For example mailer ID 999999837 is assigned to AMAZON FS / DFW5 (Amazon Fulfilment Services) (former Woot) warehouse in Carrollton, TX. 909900790 belongs to FUJI FILM OR / UPS - MI and all packages are shipped via UPS MI. It's very common for each warehouse location to have its own mailer ID. This is because tracking numbers are generated offline, and this prevents collisions. 909815791 is a mailer ID used by Target, and I've seen this same mailer ID used for both FedEx SmartPost and UPS SurePost within a few days of each other.

There is nothing in the tracking number that can reliably be used to determine which zone skipper is responsible. Shippers don't often change zone skippers, so with Target being the exception you can usually assume the same service would be used once you pinpoint the mailer IDs.

Note that Pub 199 not only describes the barcode format but also the data exchange format (think a USPS implementation of EDI) for billing. Not all of the numbers are the same across the two usages.